


A Way of Living

by verymetalbasterd



Category: My Chemical Romance, Pencey Prep
Genre: M/M, frank is in pencey prep, gerard works in a comic book store, mikey is funny as hell, ray is gerard boss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26570908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verymetalbasterd/pseuds/verymetalbasterd
Summary: Frank's band is playing their biggest show yet, and Gerard has been personally invited.
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	A Way of Living

**Author's Note:**

> hello !! a new au for ur eyes, pls lmk what u think!
> 
> this was co-written by me and achillesbf !! big thank u to him for rly helping me out w these fics

This was gonna be Pencey Prep's biggest gig yet. They'd even had posters made.

Frank beams down at the fresh ink on the paper, the stack still warm on his fingers. There they are: third on the roster, below a couple of Jersey's bigger local bands, but they’re still _on it_ and it’s still _fucking awesome_. 

He almost forgets to leave the print store, but he does so, his pocket $30 lighter. The bar they are playing had their own posters printed, but Frank wants to make sure the people on his side of Belleville know that Pencey Prep is gracing the biggest dive bar in town centre, so didn't mind paying out of pocket to make sure a few extra people could hear his music. He looks up and down the strip, wondering where to start before wandering down the street in one direction, a small excited bounce in his step as he walks, on the lookout for stores with other notices in their windows.

A few shop windows later (some happy and encouraging, some annoyed and disgruntled), and Frank's down to his last few. He finds himself outside a small comic shop - tucked between a bakery and a hardware store, painted with bright reds and greens, yet still quite homely-looking, one of those shops where you can't tell if they're open or not despite the "open" sign in the window. He carefully pushes the door and hears a small bell jingle overhead, and he steps through the threshold, looking around and grinning. Frank hasn't been in a comic store since he was a little kid, and all the imagery of superheroes and action figures hit him in the face at once in a wave of pleasant nostalgia.

-

The shop is empty, so Gerard’s taken to scribbling up an idea he might be going too far with onto a scrap piece of paper from the Drawer of Miscellaneous Things that Ray has behind the counter. He’s adding thick red streaks to the face of the doodle of a man in a fancy suit when his mind distantly registers a bell ringing, he vaguely realises he’s ignoring it, but his focus doesn’t falter since most customers go right to browsing anyway.

When a voice breaks his concentration, he swears he almost gets whiplash from snapping his head up so quickly. 

“‘Scuse me? Can I put a poster in your window? It’s for a punk show downtown.”

He takes a little too long to process what the person before him has said from being so startled but it’s only because this guy is probably the most beautiful person Gerard’s ever laid eyes on, and he’s seen Placebo live - not many people can beat Brian Molko in terms of looks. The guy is holding up a stack of papers, waiting patiently for an answer. 

He’s pretty short, Gerard notices. “Uh.” This probably isn’t the best first impression he’s going to make, but it definitely won’t be the worst. He looks at the posters in the guy’s hand and is almost impressed with the graphic design on it, punk show posters can be atrocious. He thinks about speaking but he’s afraid of making a twat out of himself – again, not the first time - so he shuts his slightly open mouth and nods, offering a small smile.

This guy looks way too cool to be Gerard’s friend, so he probably won’t even make an attempt.. The Black Flag shirt, the chain hooked to his belt loops. His eyes linger on the thin black choker he’s wearing but quickly averts his – probably weird - gaze and it lands on the tattoo the dude’s got tucked near the crook of his elbow. It’s a star.

Gerard shakes himself out of his little daze and yanks open the Drawer of Miscellaneous Things, sending a bunch of paperclips and a pencil flying out of it and clattering onto the wood floor. He grabs the clear tape that’s buried in there and thrusts it toward the short punk guy, finding it quickly being replaced by a poster. “If you wanna look.” He looks at the guy’s face as he speaks and flushes when he sees how cute his super wide smile is. *Fuck.* Gerard hopes he doesn’t notice his - probably - red cheeks. The guy quickly turns around and gets to work taping the poster to the window, talking while he does so. Gerard inspects the poster given to him closely, carefully reading the band names on it.

“Are you into punk music?” the short guy babbles, barely leaving Gerard room to speak, he carries on, “I grew up on it so it was weird to not be in a band, you know? Especially with the Jersey scene, I’ve seen Misfits about 8 times since I was 13...” Gerard notices he’s bouncing on his heels, as if he can’t stay still. He looks up at the guy when he mentions the amount of times he’s seen the Misfits, it’s impressive. “...would be super cool if you could make it, we aren’t headlining the night but it’ll still be our biggest crowd and, _fuck_ , I’m sorry I haven’t been quiet yet, I’m just so... _excited_ , you know?” 

Gerard smiles when the guy tells him he’s excited and feels excited for this complete stranger achieving his dreams. He only wishes the same could happen to him. He glances down at his doodles and sighs at the array of blood splatters and skulls he’s drawn among a macabre gothic church scene, he imagines a dark and desolate skyline filled with smoke around the two figures he’s drawn covered in blood.

He feels his face go red when he realises he’s daydreaming and that he’s got to respond and comes very close to missing the tape when it gets thrown at him. Gerard looks back again at the short punk guy; he’s grinning _even wider_ , if that’s even possible.

“Uh, yeah. I like punk,” he manages, looking back down at the poster, flustered. “Pencey Prep.” It’s the last band listed last and assumes it’s the one this guy’s in. “Like from… Catcher in the Rye?” he asks, looking back up at the guy. He sure hopes he’s not being stupid right now. 

Preparing for embarrassment he folds up the poster and pockets it and places the tape back into the drawer under the counter, slamming it shut so it jams. The fucker slides open constantly.

“Fuck yeah!” the punk dude exclaims, moving closer to the desk and leaning one hand against it, “it’s my favourite book. A lot of people think it’s weird I like it so much because it’s on the high school curriculum, but I fuckin’ loved it. I’ve got a couple special prints at home.”

Gerard almost sighs from relief when the guy confirms that his band name is from a book, “Yeah, it’s a great book, I agree!” he relaxes a little but then tenses back up again when he notices that the dude’s gaze has dropped to his doodles spread out on the desk.

“Woah,” he gasps, picking it up and studying it. 

It takes Gerard every ounce of self-control to resist snatching the page right back out of his hands when he picks it up to look at it. He’s going to have to get used to people wanting to see his art if he wants to be a real artist.

“This is really cool! Do you write your own comics as well as, you know.” The punk guy gestures about the place.

Gerard realises he’s been holding his breath as the other guy studies his piece of paper. After a noticeable exhale of breath once his art is complimented, he shakes his head.

“Ah, t-thank you!” He stutters, “Nah it’s uh… just a concept right now.” He leans over the counter to see the paper – forgetting about personal space as he usually does, his brother would be giving him a hard glare if he was here - and points to the figures in the centre wearing distressed wedding clothes and covered in blood. “This dude’s made a deal with the devil after he and his wife die, right, and he’s gotta collect the souls of a thousand evil guys, because she-” he points at the elegantly drawn lady beside the man, she’s in a white wedding gown and looks rather sad, “-is still alive while the guy was damned, and if he does that then they can be reunited.”

Gerard looks at the guy’s face and realises he’s way too close and looks away, pretty much scrambling back to being fully behind the counter again. He feels his face heat up. That’s when he notices that Ray is standing literally _right there_ giving him a concerned look.

“So…when you guys are done flirting or whatever, I’d like it if you got back to work, Gerard.” Ray says, planting a stack of comics on the counter a little too harshly. Ray looks between the two boys and pulls out his phone, smirking. Gerard realises he’s most likely texting Mikey that he’s being weird again. Gerard bites his lip nervously and apologises. He really needs to work on his social skills but that’s what he gets for being a hermit for most of his life.

“Sorry, uh.. that was weird I guess.” He forces a small laugh. “You can leave some flyers for the counter, uh, if you want.”

He braces himself to be laughed at, hoping he can just pretend this encounter never happened and that short punk dude won’t come back to prey on the weirdo at the comic store, but Gerard notices him smile - not a shit-eating grin like he had when he was excited about his band, but a soft and genuine smile, his eyes meeting Gerard’s.

“It wasn’t weird at all,” he says, his low voice sounding warm and reassuring, a contrast to the loud and boisterous tone he had going on before. Gerard mentally sighs in relief, he’s really glad he didn’t think that was weird. Well, he’s sure he did but at least he’s nice about it. The soft smile he had received practically makes him melt, why is this punk dude so _sweet_?

“I’ll let you get back to it,” the dude smiles, ”See you at the show!”

He let out a quiet “yeah, hopefully!”. Maybe Mikey will come with him to the show, he definitely won’t be able to go alone. 

The cute punk guy pulls the door, having left the remaining posters on the countertop and the bell rings above his head, he pauses before heading out, turns back towards Gerard and _winks_.

Gerard watches the guy leave, frozen to the spot, mouth slightly agape. He doesn’t even have time to react properly before the the guy is out of the shop and practically bouncing away from the store. 

Ray looks up from his phone at Gerard, finally allowing a giggle to escape. “What did I miss in the last twenty minutes dude? Did that guy recite Fifty Shades to you or something? You look like a tomato.”

Gerard absolutely doesn’t process what Ray says for a few beats before turning and closing his mouth.

“Wh- no! He just…came in to put a flyer in the window,” Gerard tries to explain. 

Ray doesn’t look impressed. He glances back at his phone and mashes the buttons on his Nokia.

“He liked my doodles,” Gerard finishes, hiding behind his hair a little bit, because he knows Ray is _super_ into his art.

Ray rolls his eyes. “Everyone does, Gee, you’re crazy talented, man!” His phone buzzes. He looks at the text he just received. “Get back to work,” he tells Gerard, gesturing at the comics on the desk. “Also, Mikey says you’re an idiot.”

Gerard snorts because, yeah, Mikey would say that. He slides the stack of comics closer to him, he starts organising them by series number because some kid had messed up the order of them _again_.


End file.
